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Wilkinson family letter
British Consulate General My dear Dick, I think that as the future head of the Wilkinson family you ought to know about our ancestry, and the purpose of this letter is to give you the particulars so far as they are known to me. When I was your age I was not very interested in our family tree, but this interest grew on me with the years and you will probably find that when you have reached my age, or even before, you will start asking yourself questions about your forbears, what they were and where they came from. I am sending a copy of this letter to Charles as well as he will I expect, some day start taking an interest in the family history. Your grandfather, Charles Crosbie Wilkinson, who died in Bornova, near Izmir (Smyrna) on January 24th, 1948, was the third son of Richard Wilkinson (your great-great-grandfather) and Jane Wilkinson, daughter of James Whittall of Smyrna, and the sister of Richard Whittall (your maternal great-grandfather). Your great-grandfather, Richard Wilkinson, was in the Consular Service, and served as Consul at Salonica, Malaga and Manila during the second half of the nineteenth century (1860 to 1890 approximately). He was the eldest son of another Richard Wilkinson (your great-great-grandfather) who married a Miss Magastre, the daughter of a rich ship-owner of Marseilles. This Miss Magastre (your great-great-grandmother) was the first cousin of Desiree Clary who married Marshal Bernadotte and became Queen of Sweeden when her husband was proclaimed King of that country about the year 1812, and also the first cousin of Julie Clary, the sister of Desiree, who marries Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother) and became Queen of Spain when Napoleon made Joseph King of Spain in 1808. Desiree, as a matter of fact, nearly married Napoleon himself when he was a penniless lieutenant of artillery, and being very much in love with her he pressed his suit very vigorously, but old Clary would have nothing to do with him! Desiree thus missed being Empress, but she bacame a Queen at any rate, and she is the great-great-grandmother of the present King of Sweeden. That is how we are connected to the Swedish Royal Family who are, of course, Bernadottes. In fact, when your great-great-grandfather, Richard Wilkinson, visited Stockholm in the first half of the nineteenth century he was received at Court as a cousin. Your great-great-grandfather, Richard Wilkinson, (who married the Miss Magastre) was the son of Robert Wilkinson (your great-great-great-grandfather) and an Alsatian woman called Herta or Berta (she was, it seems, a rather large well upholstered woman and I think I remember grannie Jane once telling me she was known as “Big Bertha”), but I have no idea what her maiden name was. He, that is your great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Wilkinson, was supposed to have been born in Harwich, where our ancestors came from, about 1750. Your great-great-grandfather, Richard Wilkinson, according to the records preserved at the British Consulate-General at Smyrna, was born in England in about 1780, but the place and date of his birth are not mentioned. He served as British Consul in Syra, which was then an important place, famous for its “locoums” (Turkish Delight), and in addition to a son (your great-grandfather) had a lot of very beautiful daughters, one of whom, (Eliza), married Dr. McCraith, who was the grandfather of Marie Belhomme and Mercy Whittall. Your great-uncles were both in the Government services: Dick in the Colonial service where he ended up as Governor of Sierra Leone, but had the misfortune to marry Edie Baird, and Fred, the father of Nellie, Bettie and George, who, as you know, was in the Consular Service. Jim your other great-uncle, who died at the age of fifty in Chios in 1917, was an unsuccessful businessman but a first-class wit: your only great-Aunt, Nellie, married Fred Whittall, a first-class miser, and brought Cecil and Sheila into the world before she died in 1920. She had all the family charm which unfortunately was not inherited by her children. And finally you have Grandpapa Charles who was of course a very talented artist but not a business man. Nor am I a businessman, so it looks like my dear Dick, as if you and your brother Charles are going to be the first successful business men in the Wilkinson family. As a family, and like most families, we no doubt have characteristic defects, but I think we all have qualities. One of these which no one, I think, will dispute is good manners and breeding, qualities which I am sure will be well maintained and propogated by you and Charles. Another attribute, we possess is a refinement, and that quality has been reinforced by your lovely Mother who is one of the most refined women I have ever seen. Little Richard has inherited it in a large measure, not only physically but mentally, and from Edna as well from what I have heard. Well Dick, as the future head of the family (I of course, am the present head: Robert-Richard-Richard-Charles-Eddie-and then you) you find all this information quite useful one day, especially if you ever go to Stockholm!! And it might eventually interest another future head-of-the-family, my dear grandson Richard. So put this letter away in some safe place for future reference, Much love to you, Edna, Richard and Michael, |